Gibson Les Paul style guitars are very fragile. One nasty fall can crack or break the headstock right off!

This is a quality MIJ LP copy I bought on Ebay for a bargain price. When I unpacked it, I was horrified : the guitar had no head.

Although a broken headstock is frightening, it is usually easy to repair. When a guitar falls on the floor, the neck break is clean and can be glued back on without too much trouble, sometimes actually making the head stronger than it was even before the break !

The problem with my guitar is that it was broken in transit. The whole time, the broken neck and headstock rubbed against each other, grinding the wood on both pieces and making them impossible to glue back together.

I had to make a new headstock with a piece of mahogany, and chisel a proper tenon and mortise system that would make a strong glue joint between the neck and new headstock.

I carved a volute in the back of the new headstock to add solid matter to that sensitive spot behind the nut were most necks break.

I gave the guitar a new finish job, replaced the tuners with Grovers, and installed a Seymour Duncan '59 neck pickup and a Seymour Duncan Custom Custom bridge humbucker.

I dare say that this guitar is in better shape today than it probably ever was.

Oh, and since the guitar was insured, I got my money back ;-)